Semana Santa

Sunday was Easter, and in the States Easter usually means finding your hidden Easter basket full of candy, possibly an Easter egg hunt, going to Church and a big dinner. In Paraguay Easter is not celebrated for a day but for an entire week. Palm Sunday signifies the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week), which ends on Easter. Monday and Tuesday most people go about their usual routines with work and school, but starting Wednesday everything changes. I had a half-day of training on Wednesday but most schools were closed and many people had off from work. All over Paraguay on Wednesday families were making Chipa. Chipa is a traditional bread made from corn meal, yucca flour, eggs, pig lard (or butter), anise and of course Queso Paraguaya. It usually tastes pretty good when it’s fresh, but after a few hours it gets hard and dry. Thursday is the day of the last supper. Many families eat pork for lunch. I was lucky enough to arrive home Tuesday afternoon in time to see my host dad’s sister, who lives next door, slaughter and butcher the last of three pigs to be sold for the week. On Thursday most families also make Sopa Paraguaya, which is like a Paraguayan cornbread with many of the same ingredients as Chipa. Friday is the most important day of the week because that is the day Christ was killed. Most businesses in Paraguay are closed on this day, including the Dispensa at our house. The traditional families fast for the entire day eating nothing but Chipa and Sopa Paraguaya and drinking cocido, brewed Yerba with charcoal burnt sugar. On Saturday most businesses are open, but it is a very relaxed day. There was a three-hour mass that began at 9 pm. Sunday was a pretty normal day with no extra special celebration. Semana Santa is the most important holiday is Paraguay. Many people travel to spend the week with family in other parts of the country, like we would for Christmas. One of my host brothers who currently lives in Buenos Aires came into town for the week. It was nice to have a few days off from training. I read a lot, watched a few movies and taught Laura and Santiago how to play Rummy 500. This week I am in another town visiting a volunteer for my Long Field Practice. We got here Monday and we´ll be here until Friday. Next Friday we find out our sites... the anticipation is building.

One Month in Paraguay

It has been one month since my arrival in Paraguay and of course I have two contradictory thoughts the first being that I can’t believe it has already been a month and the second that I can’t believe that it has only been a month. To celebrate the other Urban Youth Development (UYD) trainees came over to my house and we hung out on my front porch drinking boxed red wine with Fanta. Not exactly the ideal celebration in the States but hey we do what we can! This brings me to the social life of a Paraguayan.

The machisma culture here dictates what is acceptable for men and women in all aspects of life, including the social scene, although things are becoming more progressive and women are gaining ground. The typical young adult male has much more freedom then a female. This independence may start as early as childhood. Boys are much more likely to be running around freely coming and going as they please while girls shouldn’t be out past dark and should never go anywhere alone. This may just sound like the over-protectiveness that is necessary in a dangerous culture, but I assure you that while bad things do happen, they are not likely going to happen to a 23 year old female in the middle of the day just because she is walking alone for a few blocks. I am pretty lucky though because my family gives me tons of freedom.

In terms of dating traditional Paraguayan culture has some strict guidelines. Young men visit the home of their girlfriends on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings. The other days are for the secondary girlfriend or the girl that the guy doesn’t like as much. At parties, which are held Saturday nights at the soccer clubs, which are basically soccer fields that double as a meeting/party place, a guy will ask a girl to dance and then if she dances with him for more than two or three songs it means she likes him and they will soon be boyfriend/girlfriend. The parties are interesting because they start around 10 and last until about 6 in the morning. I went to one last week and there weren’t very many people there but Laura has convinced me that it was because people don’t really go during Lent. She claims they will be much better after Easter. The parties cost about 10,000 to get in and the beers are 5000 each. In Paraguay it is very rare for people to order and drink their own alcoholic beverage. Usually a group will have one or two drinks that they pass around taking a few sips each. The first time we went out in town I heard later that same night about the Americans who were each drinking their own beer. We quickly learned to share. Not a good thing for germ phobics!

By spending most of my time with the family I have learned many of the Paraguayan norms and customs. It is amazing how there are such distinct differences between their culture and that of the United States. I feel like I am learning new thing everyday! Oh yeah and by the way I pretty much witnessed my host mom killing a chicken today, I am guessing that´s dinner.

Also want to let you know that Jill sent me a letter using only one stamp and it made it here. I don´t know if that was a fluke but it got here!

The Tranquilo Life of a Volunteer

My four days with the volunteer sparked a light at the end of the tunnel. Training will eventually come to an end and so will the monotonous hours of 8-5 in a classroom. The life of a volunteer is much more relaxed while still getting work done. It was great. In addition to seeing the professional side of volunteer life I got to go to some great places around Asuncion. The Centro is the downtown area of Asuncion and there is a plaza there where they sell the traditional Apo’i shirts, tools for Terere and jewelry of all sorts. I am excited to return there once I have a little bit more cash. We also went to a really nice gelato place and out for sushi. It was tranquilo.

My language class has transitioned to learning Guarani. We started with common phrases last Friday and learned a little bit more on Thursday of this week. The language has a format that makes it easy to understand on paper but listening to people talk is a whole different story. It is definitely not easy trying to learn two languages at the same time. Hopefully I will get the hang of it. I have 8 more weeks of training to get down the basics and two years to figure it out!